In many of the debates about whether building a railway line to Auckland Airport should be a priority or not, most of the focus has been on making it easier for travellers to get between the city and the airport. This is somewhat understandable, as for regular travellers it seems bizarre for the trip between the city and the airport to take longer than the flight between Auckland and Wellington.…
As the year draws to a close I have been having a few discussions with friends about whether 2010 has been a good year for public transport or not. There are probably arguments either way.
On the bright side first Perhaps the biggest boost was the results of the Auckland Council local government election, and in particular the election of Mayor Len Brown on a very strong public transport platform. …
Auckland Transport have sent me copies of the board papers presented at their first board meeting, on November 17th. There are five documents I have – which I’ve uploaded so everyone can have a good look through: Board Agenda: this just lists what the AT board considered at their November 17th meeting.…
Following on from the Memorandum of Understanding signed between various parties on improving transport access to Auckland International Airport a few months back, the tender for “the first stage of an investigation into preferred routes for rapid transit and state highway links to the airport” has been called.…
Somewhat unsurprisingly, many commentators have been quick to write off Len Brown’s transport vision for Auckland as impossibly expensive, ‘pie in the sky’ aspirations. Some of the criticism has come from predictable sources, like David Farrar’s Kiwiblog:
Len may think he has a mandate for the rail – and he does if the ratepayers of Auckland who voted for him are willing to pay for it.…
I like to play around with ideas for dream future rail systems for Auckland, and oddly enough sometimes my rail visions are embraced by those with some opportunity to make them into a reality. But aside from making for interesting discussion points, having a bit of a think about what we might want our public transport system to look like 20, 30 or even 40 years into the future is important for one simple reason.…
My post a couple of days ago on the potential options for a fast-tracked Airport Railway line generated a lot of interest and debate. Some major points of debate have been the following: Whether we really do need the CBD rail tunnel first.…
The level of support amongst the general public, coupled with the recent reopening of the Onehunga Branch Line, has really put the idea of rail to Auckland Airport back on the agenda in a big way. Mayoral frontrunner Len Brown, as well as Mike Lee (who seems likely to end up with one of the two council seats on the board of the Transport CCO), have thrown their full support behind completing the Airport Line as soon as possible.…
You would think that when a survey of voters in the Auckland region highlights that transport is the most important issue in their minds, and then also highlight various rail projects as those considered most necessary by voters to “fixing” the transport problem, our main newspaper might actually do a bit of investigation into the projects being talked about?…
While the fact that transport has become the number one issue in the current Super City elections doesn’t surprise me, one thing that has surprised me a bit in recent times is the level of focus on getting rail out to Auckland International Airport.…
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